Posts by Dinah Dunavan

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  • Hard News: If you can't say something…,

    We had our neighbour's stereo confiscated before lunchtime today. Now they're working on losing the second one.

    Sounds like the move is going great then :-)

    main purpose of a heterosexual civil union was to avoid the clichéd, tacky multi-million dollar industry

    It's easy to avoid the tacky wedding industry, if that's what you want. You can even have a religious ceremony with only 4 people and the minister. Or, you can have the full blown, majorly expensive, OTT gala. Your choice.

    I thought the main purpose of civil unions was to keep gay people from being allowed to get married.

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

  • Hard News: If you can't say something…,

    Here's a happy story to lighten Craig's mood.

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

  • Island Life: The Art of the Deal,

    Can I just get the cash now instead of the herceptin?

    I am in a high risk category (Mum, aunt & lots of female relations with breast cancer and I've never had children) but I'm still skeptical and my mate's mum had severe cardiac damage from it and barely survived. Also I don't trust drug campanies and media beat up. The women's Health Council wrote this.

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

  • Hard News: Rethinking the EFA,

    proposal which was floated some time back, to set up some sort of funding mechanism for independent/freelance journalism

    Someone told me APN were going to sell The Listener. Let's get a consortium together to buy it. I miss The Listener. Not the rag that goes by it's name but the one I used to subscribe to.

    I've got a list of the first redundancies I'll make already drafted.

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

  • Island Life: The Art of the Deal,

    I don't like the idea of the Maori Party propping up a National led Government, and I know the thought that they might, lost them one vote at the election.

    But, which is worse: National going to ACT to get their policies through (bound to lead to a shift right and that wont help Maori); or National calling on the Moari party to support some slightly more centrist policies?

    We have a National led government and the best that some of us can hope for is that the parties to their left do their darndest to make sure National looks their way for support and not to ACT.

    I shudder to think what policies National will concoct with ACT pushing them.

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

  • Hard News: Rethinking the EFA,

    NZ is not the kind of place where people break each others windows for their political ideas

    Move to a small NZ town or locality and you will find that people do break windows if they don't like what you stand for. Or poison your dogs, or smack you round a bit. Just for having an opinion on a contentious issue that doesn't fit with theirs. Sometimes I hear the banjos playing as drive through ...

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

  • Hard News: Rethinking the EFA,

    And if we're going to have a Pasifica seat (as has been suggested) will we have one for the Chinese?

    Oh oh, and one for Winston supporters. It is really unfair that a lot of people voted for WP and he didn't get in because his voters are spread out over the country and not just in Tauranga (where they all used to be - the drift south of the retired folks.). From the electorate votes I'd guess not a lot of people would vote for the Ron Mark Party or Peter Brown Party. Can he be cloned? That would be the crunch I guess.

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

  • Hard News: And meanwhile ...,

    Did anyone else hear the conservative commentator on National Radio this morning saying he thought Palin, when describing Obama as "cool", meant "cool as in Fonzi"?

    Even I am too young to have ever thought Fonzi was cool. Maybe that's why McCain lost, those Republicans still think "cool" is a character in a 70s sitcom. Sheesh.

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

  • Hard News: Congratulations, Mr Key,

    I'm flumoxed on Ian Wishart. He went to Onslow College at the same time as me. We were at an incredibly liberal secondary school. I'm pretty sure we were taught science not the bible. The only people I know who became loony god squaders after leaving school had been on some pretty serious drugs before the conversion. That doesn't fit with any Ian Wishart I can conjour to memory. So go figure. Perhaps he had a bad, you know, experience, with a woman...

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

  • Hard News: Prospects,

    Harking back to an early comment, the 18 year old who is going to text her vote for Rodders to stay on the Island.

    I'm an old curmudgeon, everywhere I look these days I see greedy selfishness (except at this blog, mostly). It might be because I work in education and I was raised by someone who lived during the depression. So not only do I get to see just how "I" centred the youf of today are, I also hate to carry debt and think my secondhand and old stuff is wonderfully adequate.

    I think we have right wing governments so that life can get a bit hard for a lot of people. That way those folk who have had life pretty damn easy can see that life isn't an iPhone for everyone. Somethimes it is hard. People lose their jobs, go hungry, lose their houses, get screwed by their employers and the government sells the country down the river. That 18 year old never lived through Muldoon, she would not have been aware of Roger and Ruth. So she has no idea what can happen if you give control to people who care more about money than people.

    Then just when things get really bad we sweep a left wing government into power and if we're lucky things get better for a while. (Of course there was always the Lange government, we thought we were voting left and got Roger Douglas. Boy were we screwed.)

    But because we're forgetful, and new voters, who have never known life to be hard, get to vote, the right wing get in again.

    I don't normally get this grumpy in a public forum but I am really angry that just as America looks like it's heading left, NZ look set to head right. "It's safe to come back." said a friend, maybe we'll think "it's time to leave."

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report

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